DOCOHEHT RESUME

ED 133 136 EC 009 623

AUTHOR Rusmore Jay T Kirmeyer Sandra L TITLE Family Attitudes Among Mexican-American and

Anglo-American Parents in San Jose California FOB DATE Apr 76 NOTE 13p

EDHS PRICE MF-J083 HC-S167 Plus Postage DESCRIPTORS Anglo Americans Child Rearing Comparative

Analysis Cultural Background Cultural Differences Educational Background Family Attitudes Interviews Marital Status Mexican Americans Parent Attitudes Parent Child Relationship Religion Socioeconomic Background

IDENTIFIERS California (San Jose)

ABSTRACT Home interviews were used to investigate the degree

to which Mexican American parents have retained traditional Mexican family attitudes and childrearing practices Respondents were 118 Mexican American and 148 Anglo American parents residing in the same working-class neighborhoods in San Jose California who were married to persons of the same cultural background and had at least one young child The typical respondent was a young mother who did not work outside the home and had four children Mexican American parents-werepredominately second generation Americans Interviewers were undergraduates bilingual Mexican American students interviewed Mexican American respondents Presented in three sections the interviews gathered data on their background ie the number of children religious affiliation number of years of formal education occupation language spoken at home country of birth attitudes toward close family ties and parent-child relations ie the rules the child was expected to follow childs chores parents ways of punishing and rewarding the child After statistically controlling for differences in socioeconomic status it was found that Mexican American parents (1) felt close family relations were more important and visited their relatives more often and (2) encouraged similar family-centered attitudes in their children by restricting where theyplayed and with whom (AuthorNQ)

Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished materials not available from other sources ERIC makes every effort to obtain the best copy available Nevertheless items of marginal reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS) EDRS is not responsible for the quality of the original document Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original

US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH EDUCATION WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF

EDUCATION

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FAMILY ATTITUDES AMONG MEXICAN-AMERICAN

AND ANGLO-AMERICAN PARENTS IN SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA

Jay T Rusraore

Sar Jose State University

Sandra L Kirmeyer

Claremont Graduate School

Presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Western

Psychological Association in Los Angeles California April 1976

CO

o o

Abstract

The present research used home interviews to investigate the degree

to which Mexican-American parents have retained traditional Mexican family

attitudes and childrearing practices Respondents were 118 Mexican-

American and 148 Anglo-American parents residing in the same working-class

neighborhoods in San Jose California Undergraduate students acted as

interviewers Mexican-American respondents were interviewed by bi-lingual

Mexican-American students Parents selected were those who were married

to persons of the same cultural background and who had at least one young

child The typical respondent was a young mother who did not work outside

the home and had four children Mexican-American parents were predominately

second generation Americans After statistically controlling for differences

in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents in contrast with their

Anglo-American neighbors felt close family relations were more important

and visited their relatives more often Mexican-American parents appeared

to encourage similar family-centered attitudes in their children by

restricting where their children played and with whom

3

Family Attitudes

FAMILY ATTITUDES AMONG MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND

ANGLO-AMERICAN PARENTS IN SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA

In recent years much attention has been focused on identifying causes of

the lower economic and educational achievements of Mexican-Americans compared

with Anglo-Americans (eg Uhlenberg 1972 Kagan amp Zahn 1975) Researchers

such as Penalosa (1968) Carlos and Sellers (1972) McGinn Harburg amp Ginsberg I

(1965) Rosen (1962) and more recently Kagan and Carlson (1975) haive proposed

that differences in family structure andor childrearing practices may be at

least parital explanations for discrepancies in economic and school achieveshy

ments Achievement motivation for example is assumed to result from parental

training of standards of excellence and independence

L

There is research evidence to suggest that the Mexican family places a

greater emphasis on obedience and less emphasis on independence or self-reliance

than the Anglo-American family Rosen (1962) for example found the Brazilian

mothers when asked to indicate the age at which they expected their sons to i

display independence in areas such as making friends and deciding how to spend t

their money and what clothes to wear expected their children to be independent

at later ages than did American mothers within the same socioeconomic class

Further twice as many Brazilian (26) as American boys (13) described their

mothers as telling them what they can and cannot do most of the time (Rosen

1962) Consistent with Rosen (1962) McGinn et al (1965) found that Mexican

students more frequently described their mothers as strict and as discouraging

disagreement

Another characteristic of the Mexican family (Carlos amp Sellers 1972)

ttclosely related to the encouragement of dependence is an emphasis on close

family relations McGinn (1966) has proposed that Mexican mothers not only

The research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Sandra L Kirmeyer Grant No GY 9575

-2- Family Attitudes

control their childrens thoughts more than Anglo mothers but they also exert

more control over the movements of young children Children are encouraged

to play at home with siblings rather than with other children in the neighborshy

hood thus promoting close emotional ties between siblings (McGinn 1966)

Observed differences between Mexican and Anglo-American parents do not

necessarily translate into differences between the Anglo and Mexican-Americans

For example Madsen and Kagan (1973) found that when mothers worked with their

children on an experimental task Mexican mothers responded to their childrens

performance in less punitive and more rewarding ways than did Anglo-Americans

However Mexican-American mothers did not differ significantly from their

Anglo-American counterparts Contrary to the Mexican mothers Mexican-Americans

tended to be more punitive than Anglo-Americans

Mexican-Americans may be more similar to Anglo-Americans than to Mexicans

in their childrearing practices for two reasons First observed differences

between Mexicans and Anglo-Americans may be more closely related to urbanization

and economic class than to cultural background (eg Kagan amp Carlson 1975)

If it is the case that urbanization and economic factors rather than culture

are the causes of previously observed Mexican and Anglo-American differences

in childrearing practices then Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans residing

in the same neighborhoods would not be expected to differ in any significant

ways Second acculturation may quickly erase any initial disparity between

cultural groups Grebler Moore and Guzman (1970) provided some evidence

that Mexican-American and Anglo-American workers do not differ in achievement

orientation With regard to their work Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans

expressed similar desires for job advancement higher income job security

and for jobs which are intrinsically rewarding (Grebler et al 1970)

The present research was designed to provide data on two questions related

to the broader issue of the degree to which Mexican-Americans have retaired

the traditional Mexican family attitudes and childrearing practices Do Angloshy

-3- Family Attitudes

American and Mexican-African parents who live in the same neighborhoods and experience

similar urbanization and socioeconomic class differ in attitudes toward close

relationships within the family and in their encouragement of dependence in

their cnildren Are the differences in the directions which would be expected

on the basis of descriptive literature on the Mexican family

Method

Respondent s

Respondents were 118 Mexican-American parents and 148 Anglo-American parents

residing in the same working-class neighborhoods in San Jose California Neighshy

borhoods selected for sampling had high concentrations of Mexican-Americans and

median incomes comparable to the median for the United States as a whole Once

the neighborhoods had been selected undergraduate students canvassed the areas

on a door-to-door basis to obtain a complete list of all potential respondents

Such a thorough and very expensive procedure for generating the pool of potential

respondents was necessary because only a small portion of the residents within

the neighborhood met the requirements of the study whose purpose was to examine

the effects of cultural background on parental childrearing practices and on

the parent-parent relations within the family Thus it was necessary to select

only those parents who were (a) Anglo-American or Mexican-American (determined

by family surname) (b) married to a person of the same cultural background

(c) living with their spouse and (d) had at least oie child between the ages

of six and twelve years

Respondents were drawn from a pool of approximately 1600 eligible Anglo-

Americans and Mexican-Americans From these potential respondents 250 Mexican-

Americans and 250 Anglo-Americans were randomly selected Of those selected f

61 percent of the Anglo-Americans and 56 Percent of the Mexican-Americans were

interviewed Usable interviews were obtained from 148 Anglo-Americans and 118

Mexican-Americans Interviews were discarded primarily because it had become

evident to the interviewer that the respondent was not married to a person of

6

the same cultural background

Of the respondents 82 percent were women The average respondent was

young (X age 35 years) did not work outside the home had nine and one-half

years of formal education and had four children The Mexican-American parents

were predominantly second generation Americans (47) that is their parents

were born in Mexico and the respondents were born in the United States 36

percent of the Mexican-Americans were born in the United States and had parents

who were also born in the United States (later generation Mexican-Americans)

Only 17 percent of the Mexican-Americans were first generation Americans that -

is immigrants from Mexico

Procedure

Letters describing the interview as a conversation with a student about

your family and children and urging participation were mailed to all selected

respondents Those parents who received letters were later called by telephone

to schedule appointments During the telephone conversation it was explained

that the interview or conversation would involve one parent not both and a

student Those parents who did not have telephones or who did not wish to give

us their telephone numbers were contacted personally

Interviewing was carried on during the four-week period between June 26 and

July 21 1974 having been preceded by a one week training course which involved

familiarization with the interview schedule role-playing and practice interviews

with parents who were not eligible to participate in the study but who wished to

be interviewed

Eleven undergraduate college students acted as interviewers five Mexican-

Americans who were bi-lingual and six Anglo-Americans Mexican-American responshy

dents were interviewed by Mexican-American interviewers to ensure that respondents

who preferred to speak Spanish were able to do so Interviewers read each item

to respondents and coded all responses Only one parent in each family was present

during the interview The sessions ranged in length from 45 minutes to lj hours

7

-5- Family Attitudes

Interview

The interview was presented in three sections in the following order

(a) background information which consisted of 43 questions concerning the

number of children the familys religious affiliation the number of years

of formal education of each parent the occupation of each parent and the

languages spoken in the home the country of birth etc (b) attitudes toward

close family ties which consisted of 13 Likert-type items and (c) parent-child

relations including 85 questions concerning the rules the child is expected

to follow childs chores the parents ways of punishing and rewarding the

child and so on The questions were designed to be answered with reference

to a young child with at least one year of school experience therefore each

family in the sample had to have at least one child between the ages of six and

twelve years

Results and Discussion

Despite an attempt to institute a nonstatistical control for socioeconomic

status by selecting respondents from the same neighborhoods (ie areas with

houses of similar age and cost) Anglo-Americans were significantly better

educated than their Mexican-American counterparts (wives t^(260)= 749 plt001

husbands t(239)= 573 p^001) and had significantly higher average socio-

economic status (M259) = 372 plt001) a weighted combination of the husbands

education and occupational levels (Hollingshead 1959) To assess the effects

of cultural background on each of two sets of items one set selected to measure

attitudes toward close family relations and the other set selected to measure

parental encouragement of dependence multivariate analyses of variance were

performed using socioeconomic status as a covariate

-6- Family Attitudes

The analyses confirmed that Mexican-American parents felt close family

relations were more important than did Arglo-Americans multivariate pound(6252=

266 p lt 001) All measures of family-centeredness produced highly signishy

ficant univariates pound s for cultural background Compared with Anglo-Americans

Mexican-American parents agreed more strongly with statements indicating they

(a) enjoyed talking with their parents pound(1257)= 216 p laquopound 02 (b) their

relatives had warm and friendly feelings toward one another pound(1257)= 1026

p lti 001 (c) a childs best friend should be hisher brother or sister F_

(1257)= 663 p - 001 (d) the familys reputation in the neighborhood is

important pound(1257)= 219 p ltpound 02 and (e) loyalty to family members is very

important regardless of whether the relative is right or wrong pound(1257)=

116 p pound~ 03 In addition Mexican-American parents visited their relatives

more often than did the Anglo-Americans pound(1257)= 228 p pound 02

Mexican-American parents tended to encourage their childrens dependence

on the family unit and obedience to authority more than Anglo-American parents

multivariate pound(8250)= 274 p lt 001 Mexican-American parents compared with

Anglo-Americans (a) less often allowed their child to bring friends home to

play pound(1257)= 797 p lt 001 (b) required their children to play closer

to home pound (1257)= 706 p ltC001 (c) worried more when their children were

not at home pound(1257)= 346 p lt 006 and (d) allowed the child to make fewer

small decisions such as what to wear and when to go to bed pound(1257)= 518

plt 002 Compared with Anglo-Americans Mexican-American parents expressed

more disapproval when their child argued with authority figures such as

teachers pound(1257)= 540 p ltpound 001 or interrupted adult conversations pound(1257) =

651 p lt 001

In summary results suggest that Mexican-Americans do display patterns

of childrearing and family attitudes significantly different from those of

Anglo-Americans and consistent with their Mexican cultural background After

9

-7- Family Attitudes

controlling for differences in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents

in contrast with their Anglo-American neighbors held more family-centered

attitudes reflecting a greater concern for maintaining close warm relationshy

ships within the family and appear to encourage similar family-centered

attitudes and behaviors in their children by requiring them to play close to

home with siblings and to respect the authority of their elders

By way of caution it should be noted that the present study required a

high level of cooperation from respondents and that the sample included only

intact families where both parents were of the same cultural background

Further the respondents were mostly women Since the sample is therefore

likely to have a disproportionate number of the more stable and verbally fluent

members of both cultural communities generalizations must be restricted

accordingly

Conclusions

Nonetheless our findings are of interest to psychologists studying Mexican-

Americans for several reasons First we have begun to identify cultural difshy

ferences in childreering practices which do not appear to be accounted for by

differences in education occupation or socioeconomic status Second alshy

though research by Kagan Madsen and their colleagues have documented the

effects of cultural background urbanization and socioeconomic differences on

the social motives of Mexican Mexican-American and Anglo-American children

researchers have just begun to define the variables which mediate between cultural

background and social motives Recent reviews of cross-cultural research by

Triandis Malpass and Davidson (1973) and Whiting (Note 1) have urged psyshy

chologists to begin to unravel packaged variables such as cultural backshy

ground and socioeconomic status in order to delineate more carefully the causal

links between such demographic variables on the one hand and attitudes and

behaviors on the other It is hoped that the present research along with the

10

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

Family Attitudes

FAMILY ATTITUDES AMONG MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND

ANGLO-AMERICAN PARENTS IN SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA

In recent years much attention has been focused on identifying causes of

the lower economic and educational achievements of Mexican-Americans compared

with Anglo-Americans (eg Uhlenberg 1972 Kagan amp Zahn 1975) Researchers

such as Penalosa (1968) Carlos and Sellers (1972) McGinn Harburg amp Ginsberg I

(1965) Rosen (1962) and more recently Kagan and Carlson (1975) haive proposed

that differences in family structure andor childrearing practices may be at

least parital explanations for discrepancies in economic and school achieveshy

ments Achievement motivation for example is assumed to result from parental

training of standards of excellence and independence

L

There is research evidence to suggest that the Mexican family places a

greater emphasis on obedience and less emphasis on independence or self-reliance

than the Anglo-American family Rosen (1962) for example found the Brazilian

mothers when asked to indicate the age at which they expected their sons to i

display independence in areas such as making friends and deciding how to spend t

their money and what clothes to wear expected their children to be independent

at later ages than did American mothers within the same socioeconomic class

Further twice as many Brazilian (26) as American boys (13) described their

mothers as telling them what they can and cannot do most of the time (Rosen

1962) Consistent with Rosen (1962) McGinn et al (1965) found that Mexican

students more frequently described their mothers as strict and as discouraging

disagreement

Another characteristic of the Mexican family (Carlos amp Sellers 1972)

ttclosely related to the encouragement of dependence is an emphasis on close

family relations McGinn (1966) has proposed that Mexican mothers not only

The research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Sandra L Kirmeyer Grant No GY 9575

-2- Family Attitudes

control their childrens thoughts more than Anglo mothers but they also exert

more control over the movements of young children Children are encouraged

to play at home with siblings rather than with other children in the neighborshy

hood thus promoting close emotional ties between siblings (McGinn 1966)

Observed differences between Mexican and Anglo-American parents do not

necessarily translate into differences between the Anglo and Mexican-Americans

For example Madsen and Kagan (1973) found that when mothers worked with their

children on an experimental task Mexican mothers responded to their childrens

performance in less punitive and more rewarding ways than did Anglo-Americans

However Mexican-American mothers did not differ significantly from their

Anglo-American counterparts Contrary to the Mexican mothers Mexican-Americans

tended to be more punitive than Anglo-Americans

Mexican-Americans may be more similar to Anglo-Americans than to Mexicans

in their childrearing practices for two reasons First observed differences

between Mexicans and Anglo-Americans may be more closely related to urbanization

and economic class than to cultural background (eg Kagan amp Carlson 1975)

If it is the case that urbanization and economic factors rather than culture

are the causes of previously observed Mexican and Anglo-American differences

in childrearing practices then Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans residing

in the same neighborhoods would not be expected to differ in any significant

ways Second acculturation may quickly erase any initial disparity between

cultural groups Grebler Moore and Guzman (1970) provided some evidence

that Mexican-American and Anglo-American workers do not differ in achievement

orientation With regard to their work Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans

expressed similar desires for job advancement higher income job security

and for jobs which are intrinsically rewarding (Grebler et al 1970)

The present research was designed to provide data on two questions related

to the broader issue of the degree to which Mexican-Americans have retaired

the traditional Mexican family attitudes and childrearing practices Do Angloshy

-3- Family Attitudes

American and Mexican-African parents who live in the same neighborhoods and experience

similar urbanization and socioeconomic class differ in attitudes toward close

relationships within the family and in their encouragement of dependence in

their cnildren Are the differences in the directions which would be expected

on the basis of descriptive literature on the Mexican family

Method

Respondent s

Respondents were 118 Mexican-American parents and 148 Anglo-American parents

residing in the same working-class neighborhoods in San Jose California Neighshy

borhoods selected for sampling had high concentrations of Mexican-Americans and

median incomes comparable to the median for the United States as a whole Once

the neighborhoods had been selected undergraduate students canvassed the areas

on a door-to-door basis to obtain a complete list of all potential respondents

Such a thorough and very expensive procedure for generating the pool of potential

respondents was necessary because only a small portion of the residents within

the neighborhood met the requirements of the study whose purpose was to examine

the effects of cultural background on parental childrearing practices and on

the parent-parent relations within the family Thus it was necessary to select

only those parents who were (a) Anglo-American or Mexican-American (determined

by family surname) (b) married to a person of the same cultural background

(c) living with their spouse and (d) had at least oie child between the ages

of six and twelve years

Respondents were drawn from a pool of approximately 1600 eligible Anglo-

Americans and Mexican-Americans From these potential respondents 250 Mexican-

Americans and 250 Anglo-Americans were randomly selected Of those selected f

61 percent of the Anglo-Americans and 56 Percent of the Mexican-Americans were

interviewed Usable interviews were obtained from 148 Anglo-Americans and 118

Mexican-Americans Interviews were discarded primarily because it had become

evident to the interviewer that the respondent was not married to a person of

6

the same cultural background

Of the respondents 82 percent were women The average respondent was

young (X age 35 years) did not work outside the home had nine and one-half

years of formal education and had four children The Mexican-American parents

were predominantly second generation Americans (47) that is their parents

were born in Mexico and the respondents were born in the United States 36

percent of the Mexican-Americans were born in the United States and had parents

who were also born in the United States (later generation Mexican-Americans)

Only 17 percent of the Mexican-Americans were first generation Americans that -

is immigrants from Mexico

Procedure

Letters describing the interview as a conversation with a student about

your family and children and urging participation were mailed to all selected

respondents Those parents who received letters were later called by telephone

to schedule appointments During the telephone conversation it was explained

that the interview or conversation would involve one parent not both and a

student Those parents who did not have telephones or who did not wish to give

us their telephone numbers were contacted personally

Interviewing was carried on during the four-week period between June 26 and

July 21 1974 having been preceded by a one week training course which involved

familiarization with the interview schedule role-playing and practice interviews

with parents who were not eligible to participate in the study but who wished to

be interviewed

Eleven undergraduate college students acted as interviewers five Mexican-

Americans who were bi-lingual and six Anglo-Americans Mexican-American responshy

dents were interviewed by Mexican-American interviewers to ensure that respondents

who preferred to speak Spanish were able to do so Interviewers read each item

to respondents and coded all responses Only one parent in each family was present

during the interview The sessions ranged in length from 45 minutes to lj hours

7

-5- Family Attitudes

Interview

The interview was presented in three sections in the following order

(a) background information which consisted of 43 questions concerning the

number of children the familys religious affiliation the number of years

of formal education of each parent the occupation of each parent and the

languages spoken in the home the country of birth etc (b) attitudes toward

close family ties which consisted of 13 Likert-type items and (c) parent-child

relations including 85 questions concerning the rules the child is expected

to follow childs chores the parents ways of punishing and rewarding the

child and so on The questions were designed to be answered with reference

to a young child with at least one year of school experience therefore each

family in the sample had to have at least one child between the ages of six and

twelve years

Results and Discussion

Despite an attempt to institute a nonstatistical control for socioeconomic

status by selecting respondents from the same neighborhoods (ie areas with

houses of similar age and cost) Anglo-Americans were significantly better

educated than their Mexican-American counterparts (wives t^(260)= 749 plt001

husbands t(239)= 573 p^001) and had significantly higher average socio-

economic status (M259) = 372 plt001) a weighted combination of the husbands

education and occupational levels (Hollingshead 1959) To assess the effects

of cultural background on each of two sets of items one set selected to measure

attitudes toward close family relations and the other set selected to measure

parental encouragement of dependence multivariate analyses of variance were

performed using socioeconomic status as a covariate

-6- Family Attitudes

The analyses confirmed that Mexican-American parents felt close family

relations were more important than did Arglo-Americans multivariate pound(6252=

266 p lt 001) All measures of family-centeredness produced highly signishy

ficant univariates pound s for cultural background Compared with Anglo-Americans

Mexican-American parents agreed more strongly with statements indicating they

(a) enjoyed talking with their parents pound(1257)= 216 p laquopound 02 (b) their

relatives had warm and friendly feelings toward one another pound(1257)= 1026

p lti 001 (c) a childs best friend should be hisher brother or sister F_

(1257)= 663 p - 001 (d) the familys reputation in the neighborhood is

important pound(1257)= 219 p ltpound 02 and (e) loyalty to family members is very

important regardless of whether the relative is right or wrong pound(1257)=

116 p pound~ 03 In addition Mexican-American parents visited their relatives

more often than did the Anglo-Americans pound(1257)= 228 p pound 02

Mexican-American parents tended to encourage their childrens dependence

on the family unit and obedience to authority more than Anglo-American parents

multivariate pound(8250)= 274 p lt 001 Mexican-American parents compared with

Anglo-Americans (a) less often allowed their child to bring friends home to

play pound(1257)= 797 p lt 001 (b) required their children to play closer

to home pound (1257)= 706 p ltC001 (c) worried more when their children were

not at home pound(1257)= 346 p lt 006 and (d) allowed the child to make fewer

small decisions such as what to wear and when to go to bed pound(1257)= 518

plt 002 Compared with Anglo-Americans Mexican-American parents expressed

more disapproval when their child argued with authority figures such as

teachers pound(1257)= 540 p ltpound 001 or interrupted adult conversations pound(1257) =

651 p lt 001

In summary results suggest that Mexican-Americans do display patterns

of childrearing and family attitudes significantly different from those of

Anglo-Americans and consistent with their Mexican cultural background After

9

-7- Family Attitudes

controlling for differences in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents

in contrast with their Anglo-American neighbors held more family-centered

attitudes reflecting a greater concern for maintaining close warm relationshy

ships within the family and appear to encourage similar family-centered

attitudes and behaviors in their children by requiring them to play close to

home with siblings and to respect the authority of their elders

By way of caution it should be noted that the present study required a

high level of cooperation from respondents and that the sample included only

intact families where both parents were of the same cultural background

Further the respondents were mostly women Since the sample is therefore

likely to have a disproportionate number of the more stable and verbally fluent

members of both cultural communities generalizations must be restricted

accordingly

Conclusions

Nonetheless our findings are of interest to psychologists studying Mexican-

Americans for several reasons First we have begun to identify cultural difshy

ferences in childreering practices which do not appear to be accounted for by

differences in education occupation or socioeconomic status Second alshy

though research by Kagan Madsen and their colleagues have documented the

effects of cultural background urbanization and socioeconomic differences on

the social motives of Mexican Mexican-American and Anglo-American children

researchers have just begun to define the variables which mediate between cultural

background and social motives Recent reviews of cross-cultural research by

Triandis Malpass and Davidson (1973) and Whiting (Note 1) have urged psyshy

chologists to begin to unravel packaged variables such as cultural backshy

ground and socioeconomic status in order to delineate more carefully the causal

links between such demographic variables on the one hand and attitudes and

behaviors on the other It is hoped that the present research along with the

10

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

-2- Family Attitudes

control their childrens thoughts more than Anglo mothers but they also exert

more control over the movements of young children Children are encouraged

to play at home with siblings rather than with other children in the neighborshy

hood thus promoting close emotional ties between siblings (McGinn 1966)

Observed differences between Mexican and Anglo-American parents do not

necessarily translate into differences between the Anglo and Mexican-Americans

For example Madsen and Kagan (1973) found that when mothers worked with their

children on an experimental task Mexican mothers responded to their childrens

performance in less punitive and more rewarding ways than did Anglo-Americans

However Mexican-American mothers did not differ significantly from their

Anglo-American counterparts Contrary to the Mexican mothers Mexican-Americans

tended to be more punitive than Anglo-Americans

Mexican-Americans may be more similar to Anglo-Americans than to Mexicans

in their childrearing practices for two reasons First observed differences

between Mexicans and Anglo-Americans may be more closely related to urbanization

and economic class than to cultural background (eg Kagan amp Carlson 1975)

If it is the case that urbanization and economic factors rather than culture

are the causes of previously observed Mexican and Anglo-American differences

in childrearing practices then Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans residing

in the same neighborhoods would not be expected to differ in any significant

ways Second acculturation may quickly erase any initial disparity between

cultural groups Grebler Moore and Guzman (1970) provided some evidence

that Mexican-American and Anglo-American workers do not differ in achievement

orientation With regard to their work Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans

expressed similar desires for job advancement higher income job security

and for jobs which are intrinsically rewarding (Grebler et al 1970)

The present research was designed to provide data on two questions related

to the broader issue of the degree to which Mexican-Americans have retaired

the traditional Mexican family attitudes and childrearing practices Do Angloshy

-3- Family Attitudes

American and Mexican-African parents who live in the same neighborhoods and experience

similar urbanization and socioeconomic class differ in attitudes toward close

relationships within the family and in their encouragement of dependence in

their cnildren Are the differences in the directions which would be expected

on the basis of descriptive literature on the Mexican family

Method

Respondent s

Respondents were 118 Mexican-American parents and 148 Anglo-American parents

residing in the same working-class neighborhoods in San Jose California Neighshy

borhoods selected for sampling had high concentrations of Mexican-Americans and

median incomes comparable to the median for the United States as a whole Once

the neighborhoods had been selected undergraduate students canvassed the areas

on a door-to-door basis to obtain a complete list of all potential respondents

Such a thorough and very expensive procedure for generating the pool of potential

respondents was necessary because only a small portion of the residents within

the neighborhood met the requirements of the study whose purpose was to examine

the effects of cultural background on parental childrearing practices and on

the parent-parent relations within the family Thus it was necessary to select

only those parents who were (a) Anglo-American or Mexican-American (determined

by family surname) (b) married to a person of the same cultural background

(c) living with their spouse and (d) had at least oie child between the ages

of six and twelve years

Respondents were drawn from a pool of approximately 1600 eligible Anglo-

Americans and Mexican-Americans From these potential respondents 250 Mexican-

Americans and 250 Anglo-Americans were randomly selected Of those selected f

61 percent of the Anglo-Americans and 56 Percent of the Mexican-Americans were

interviewed Usable interviews were obtained from 148 Anglo-Americans and 118

Mexican-Americans Interviews were discarded primarily because it had become

evident to the interviewer that the respondent was not married to a person of

6

the same cultural background

Of the respondents 82 percent were women The average respondent was

young (X age 35 years) did not work outside the home had nine and one-half

years of formal education and had four children The Mexican-American parents

were predominantly second generation Americans (47) that is their parents

were born in Mexico and the respondents were born in the United States 36

percent of the Mexican-Americans were born in the United States and had parents

who were also born in the United States (later generation Mexican-Americans)

Only 17 percent of the Mexican-Americans were first generation Americans that -

is immigrants from Mexico

Procedure

Letters describing the interview as a conversation with a student about

your family and children and urging participation were mailed to all selected

respondents Those parents who received letters were later called by telephone

to schedule appointments During the telephone conversation it was explained

that the interview or conversation would involve one parent not both and a

student Those parents who did not have telephones or who did not wish to give

us their telephone numbers were contacted personally

Interviewing was carried on during the four-week period between June 26 and

July 21 1974 having been preceded by a one week training course which involved

familiarization with the interview schedule role-playing and practice interviews

with parents who were not eligible to participate in the study but who wished to

be interviewed

Eleven undergraduate college students acted as interviewers five Mexican-

Americans who were bi-lingual and six Anglo-Americans Mexican-American responshy

dents were interviewed by Mexican-American interviewers to ensure that respondents

who preferred to speak Spanish were able to do so Interviewers read each item

to respondents and coded all responses Only one parent in each family was present

during the interview The sessions ranged in length from 45 minutes to lj hours

7

-5- Family Attitudes

Interview

The interview was presented in three sections in the following order

(a) background information which consisted of 43 questions concerning the

number of children the familys religious affiliation the number of years

of formal education of each parent the occupation of each parent and the

languages spoken in the home the country of birth etc (b) attitudes toward

close family ties which consisted of 13 Likert-type items and (c) parent-child

relations including 85 questions concerning the rules the child is expected

to follow childs chores the parents ways of punishing and rewarding the

child and so on The questions were designed to be answered with reference

to a young child with at least one year of school experience therefore each

family in the sample had to have at least one child between the ages of six and

twelve years

Results and Discussion

Despite an attempt to institute a nonstatistical control for socioeconomic

status by selecting respondents from the same neighborhoods (ie areas with

houses of similar age and cost) Anglo-Americans were significantly better

educated than their Mexican-American counterparts (wives t^(260)= 749 plt001

husbands t(239)= 573 p^001) and had significantly higher average socio-

economic status (M259) = 372 plt001) a weighted combination of the husbands

education and occupational levels (Hollingshead 1959) To assess the effects

of cultural background on each of two sets of items one set selected to measure

attitudes toward close family relations and the other set selected to measure

parental encouragement of dependence multivariate analyses of variance were

performed using socioeconomic status as a covariate

-6- Family Attitudes

The analyses confirmed that Mexican-American parents felt close family

relations were more important than did Arglo-Americans multivariate pound(6252=

266 p lt 001) All measures of family-centeredness produced highly signishy

ficant univariates pound s for cultural background Compared with Anglo-Americans

Mexican-American parents agreed more strongly with statements indicating they

(a) enjoyed talking with their parents pound(1257)= 216 p laquopound 02 (b) their

relatives had warm and friendly feelings toward one another pound(1257)= 1026

p lti 001 (c) a childs best friend should be hisher brother or sister F_

(1257)= 663 p - 001 (d) the familys reputation in the neighborhood is

important pound(1257)= 219 p ltpound 02 and (e) loyalty to family members is very

important regardless of whether the relative is right or wrong pound(1257)=

116 p pound~ 03 In addition Mexican-American parents visited their relatives

more often than did the Anglo-Americans pound(1257)= 228 p pound 02

Mexican-American parents tended to encourage their childrens dependence

on the family unit and obedience to authority more than Anglo-American parents

multivariate pound(8250)= 274 p lt 001 Mexican-American parents compared with

Anglo-Americans (a) less often allowed their child to bring friends home to

play pound(1257)= 797 p lt 001 (b) required their children to play closer

to home pound (1257)= 706 p ltC001 (c) worried more when their children were

not at home pound(1257)= 346 p lt 006 and (d) allowed the child to make fewer

small decisions such as what to wear and when to go to bed pound(1257)= 518

plt 002 Compared with Anglo-Americans Mexican-American parents expressed

more disapproval when their child argued with authority figures such as

teachers pound(1257)= 540 p ltpound 001 or interrupted adult conversations pound(1257) =

651 p lt 001

In summary results suggest that Mexican-Americans do display patterns

of childrearing and family attitudes significantly different from those of

Anglo-Americans and consistent with their Mexican cultural background After

9

-7- Family Attitudes

controlling for differences in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents

in contrast with their Anglo-American neighbors held more family-centered

attitudes reflecting a greater concern for maintaining close warm relationshy

ships within the family and appear to encourage similar family-centered

attitudes and behaviors in their children by requiring them to play close to

home with siblings and to respect the authority of their elders

By way of caution it should be noted that the present study required a

high level of cooperation from respondents and that the sample included only

intact families where both parents were of the same cultural background

Further the respondents were mostly women Since the sample is therefore

likely to have a disproportionate number of the more stable and verbally fluent

members of both cultural communities generalizations must be restricted

accordingly

Conclusions

Nonetheless our findings are of interest to psychologists studying Mexican-

Americans for several reasons First we have begun to identify cultural difshy

ferences in childreering practices which do not appear to be accounted for by

differences in education occupation or socioeconomic status Second alshy

though research by Kagan Madsen and their colleagues have documented the

effects of cultural background urbanization and socioeconomic differences on

the social motives of Mexican Mexican-American and Anglo-American children

researchers have just begun to define the variables which mediate between cultural

background and social motives Recent reviews of cross-cultural research by

Triandis Malpass and Davidson (1973) and Whiting (Note 1) have urged psyshy

chologists to begin to unravel packaged variables such as cultural backshy

ground and socioeconomic status in order to delineate more carefully the causal

links between such demographic variables on the one hand and attitudes and

behaviors on the other It is hoped that the present research along with the

10

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

-3- Family Attitudes

American and Mexican-African parents who live in the same neighborhoods and experience

similar urbanization and socioeconomic class differ in attitudes toward close

relationships within the family and in their encouragement of dependence in

their cnildren Are the differences in the directions which would be expected

on the basis of descriptive literature on the Mexican family

Method

Respondent s

Respondents were 118 Mexican-American parents and 148 Anglo-American parents

residing in the same working-class neighborhoods in San Jose California Neighshy

borhoods selected for sampling had high concentrations of Mexican-Americans and

median incomes comparable to the median for the United States as a whole Once

the neighborhoods had been selected undergraduate students canvassed the areas

on a door-to-door basis to obtain a complete list of all potential respondents

Such a thorough and very expensive procedure for generating the pool of potential

respondents was necessary because only a small portion of the residents within

the neighborhood met the requirements of the study whose purpose was to examine

the effects of cultural background on parental childrearing practices and on

the parent-parent relations within the family Thus it was necessary to select

only those parents who were (a) Anglo-American or Mexican-American (determined

by family surname) (b) married to a person of the same cultural background

(c) living with their spouse and (d) had at least oie child between the ages

of six and twelve years

Respondents were drawn from a pool of approximately 1600 eligible Anglo-

Americans and Mexican-Americans From these potential respondents 250 Mexican-

Americans and 250 Anglo-Americans were randomly selected Of those selected f

61 percent of the Anglo-Americans and 56 Percent of the Mexican-Americans were

interviewed Usable interviews were obtained from 148 Anglo-Americans and 118

Mexican-Americans Interviews were discarded primarily because it had become

evident to the interviewer that the respondent was not married to a person of

6

the same cultural background

Of the respondents 82 percent were women The average respondent was

young (X age 35 years) did not work outside the home had nine and one-half

years of formal education and had four children The Mexican-American parents

were predominantly second generation Americans (47) that is their parents

were born in Mexico and the respondents were born in the United States 36

percent of the Mexican-Americans were born in the United States and had parents

who were also born in the United States (later generation Mexican-Americans)

Only 17 percent of the Mexican-Americans were first generation Americans that -

is immigrants from Mexico

Procedure

Letters describing the interview as a conversation with a student about

your family and children and urging participation were mailed to all selected

respondents Those parents who received letters were later called by telephone

to schedule appointments During the telephone conversation it was explained

that the interview or conversation would involve one parent not both and a

student Those parents who did not have telephones or who did not wish to give

us their telephone numbers were contacted personally

Interviewing was carried on during the four-week period between June 26 and

July 21 1974 having been preceded by a one week training course which involved

familiarization with the interview schedule role-playing and practice interviews

with parents who were not eligible to participate in the study but who wished to

be interviewed

Eleven undergraduate college students acted as interviewers five Mexican-

Americans who were bi-lingual and six Anglo-Americans Mexican-American responshy

dents were interviewed by Mexican-American interviewers to ensure that respondents

who preferred to speak Spanish were able to do so Interviewers read each item

to respondents and coded all responses Only one parent in each family was present

during the interview The sessions ranged in length from 45 minutes to lj hours

7

-5- Family Attitudes

Interview

The interview was presented in three sections in the following order

(a) background information which consisted of 43 questions concerning the

number of children the familys religious affiliation the number of years

of formal education of each parent the occupation of each parent and the

languages spoken in the home the country of birth etc (b) attitudes toward

close family ties which consisted of 13 Likert-type items and (c) parent-child

relations including 85 questions concerning the rules the child is expected

to follow childs chores the parents ways of punishing and rewarding the

child and so on The questions were designed to be answered with reference

to a young child with at least one year of school experience therefore each

family in the sample had to have at least one child between the ages of six and

twelve years

Results and Discussion

Despite an attempt to institute a nonstatistical control for socioeconomic

status by selecting respondents from the same neighborhoods (ie areas with

houses of similar age and cost) Anglo-Americans were significantly better

educated than their Mexican-American counterparts (wives t^(260)= 749 plt001

husbands t(239)= 573 p^001) and had significantly higher average socio-

economic status (M259) = 372 plt001) a weighted combination of the husbands

education and occupational levels (Hollingshead 1959) To assess the effects

of cultural background on each of two sets of items one set selected to measure

attitudes toward close family relations and the other set selected to measure

parental encouragement of dependence multivariate analyses of variance were

performed using socioeconomic status as a covariate

-6- Family Attitudes

The analyses confirmed that Mexican-American parents felt close family

relations were more important than did Arglo-Americans multivariate pound(6252=

266 p lt 001) All measures of family-centeredness produced highly signishy

ficant univariates pound s for cultural background Compared with Anglo-Americans

Mexican-American parents agreed more strongly with statements indicating they

(a) enjoyed talking with their parents pound(1257)= 216 p laquopound 02 (b) their

relatives had warm and friendly feelings toward one another pound(1257)= 1026

p lti 001 (c) a childs best friend should be hisher brother or sister F_

(1257)= 663 p - 001 (d) the familys reputation in the neighborhood is

important pound(1257)= 219 p ltpound 02 and (e) loyalty to family members is very

important regardless of whether the relative is right or wrong pound(1257)=

116 p pound~ 03 In addition Mexican-American parents visited their relatives

more often than did the Anglo-Americans pound(1257)= 228 p pound 02

Mexican-American parents tended to encourage their childrens dependence

on the family unit and obedience to authority more than Anglo-American parents

multivariate pound(8250)= 274 p lt 001 Mexican-American parents compared with

Anglo-Americans (a) less often allowed their child to bring friends home to

play pound(1257)= 797 p lt 001 (b) required their children to play closer

to home pound (1257)= 706 p ltC001 (c) worried more when their children were

not at home pound(1257)= 346 p lt 006 and (d) allowed the child to make fewer

small decisions such as what to wear and when to go to bed pound(1257)= 518

plt 002 Compared with Anglo-Americans Mexican-American parents expressed

more disapproval when their child argued with authority figures such as

teachers pound(1257)= 540 p ltpound 001 or interrupted adult conversations pound(1257) =

651 p lt 001

In summary results suggest that Mexican-Americans do display patterns

of childrearing and family attitudes significantly different from those of

Anglo-Americans and consistent with their Mexican cultural background After

9

-7- Family Attitudes

controlling for differences in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents

in contrast with their Anglo-American neighbors held more family-centered

attitudes reflecting a greater concern for maintaining close warm relationshy

ships within the family and appear to encourage similar family-centered

attitudes and behaviors in their children by requiring them to play close to

home with siblings and to respect the authority of their elders

By way of caution it should be noted that the present study required a

high level of cooperation from respondents and that the sample included only

intact families where both parents were of the same cultural background

Further the respondents were mostly women Since the sample is therefore

likely to have a disproportionate number of the more stable and verbally fluent

members of both cultural communities generalizations must be restricted

accordingly

Conclusions

Nonetheless our findings are of interest to psychologists studying Mexican-

Americans for several reasons First we have begun to identify cultural difshy

ferences in childreering practices which do not appear to be accounted for by

differences in education occupation or socioeconomic status Second alshy

though research by Kagan Madsen and their colleagues have documented the

effects of cultural background urbanization and socioeconomic differences on

the social motives of Mexican Mexican-American and Anglo-American children

researchers have just begun to define the variables which mediate between cultural

background and social motives Recent reviews of cross-cultural research by

Triandis Malpass and Davidson (1973) and Whiting (Note 1) have urged psyshy

chologists to begin to unravel packaged variables such as cultural backshy

ground and socioeconomic status in order to delineate more carefully the causal

links between such demographic variables on the one hand and attitudes and

behaviors on the other It is hoped that the present research along with the

10

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

the same cultural background

Of the respondents 82 percent were women The average respondent was

young (X age 35 years) did not work outside the home had nine and one-half

years of formal education and had four children The Mexican-American parents

were predominantly second generation Americans (47) that is their parents

were born in Mexico and the respondents were born in the United States 36

percent of the Mexican-Americans were born in the United States and had parents

who were also born in the United States (later generation Mexican-Americans)

Only 17 percent of the Mexican-Americans were first generation Americans that -

is immigrants from Mexico

Procedure

Letters describing the interview as a conversation with a student about

your family and children and urging participation were mailed to all selected

respondents Those parents who received letters were later called by telephone

to schedule appointments During the telephone conversation it was explained

that the interview or conversation would involve one parent not both and a

student Those parents who did not have telephones or who did not wish to give

us their telephone numbers were contacted personally

Interviewing was carried on during the four-week period between June 26 and

July 21 1974 having been preceded by a one week training course which involved

familiarization with the interview schedule role-playing and practice interviews

with parents who were not eligible to participate in the study but who wished to

be interviewed

Eleven undergraduate college students acted as interviewers five Mexican-

Americans who were bi-lingual and six Anglo-Americans Mexican-American responshy

dents were interviewed by Mexican-American interviewers to ensure that respondents

who preferred to speak Spanish were able to do so Interviewers read each item

to respondents and coded all responses Only one parent in each family was present

during the interview The sessions ranged in length from 45 minutes to lj hours

7

-5- Family Attitudes

Interview

The interview was presented in three sections in the following order

(a) background information which consisted of 43 questions concerning the

number of children the familys religious affiliation the number of years

of formal education of each parent the occupation of each parent and the

languages spoken in the home the country of birth etc (b) attitudes toward

close family ties which consisted of 13 Likert-type items and (c) parent-child

relations including 85 questions concerning the rules the child is expected

to follow childs chores the parents ways of punishing and rewarding the

child and so on The questions were designed to be answered with reference

to a young child with at least one year of school experience therefore each

family in the sample had to have at least one child between the ages of six and

twelve years

Results and Discussion

Despite an attempt to institute a nonstatistical control for socioeconomic

status by selecting respondents from the same neighborhoods (ie areas with

houses of similar age and cost) Anglo-Americans were significantly better

educated than their Mexican-American counterparts (wives t^(260)= 749 plt001

husbands t(239)= 573 p^001) and had significantly higher average socio-

economic status (M259) = 372 plt001) a weighted combination of the husbands

education and occupational levels (Hollingshead 1959) To assess the effects

of cultural background on each of two sets of items one set selected to measure

attitudes toward close family relations and the other set selected to measure

parental encouragement of dependence multivariate analyses of variance were

performed using socioeconomic status as a covariate

-6- Family Attitudes

The analyses confirmed that Mexican-American parents felt close family

relations were more important than did Arglo-Americans multivariate pound(6252=

266 p lt 001) All measures of family-centeredness produced highly signishy

ficant univariates pound s for cultural background Compared with Anglo-Americans

Mexican-American parents agreed more strongly with statements indicating they

(a) enjoyed talking with their parents pound(1257)= 216 p laquopound 02 (b) their

relatives had warm and friendly feelings toward one another pound(1257)= 1026

p lti 001 (c) a childs best friend should be hisher brother or sister F_

(1257)= 663 p - 001 (d) the familys reputation in the neighborhood is

important pound(1257)= 219 p ltpound 02 and (e) loyalty to family members is very

important regardless of whether the relative is right or wrong pound(1257)=

116 p pound~ 03 In addition Mexican-American parents visited their relatives

more often than did the Anglo-Americans pound(1257)= 228 p pound 02

Mexican-American parents tended to encourage their childrens dependence

on the family unit and obedience to authority more than Anglo-American parents

multivariate pound(8250)= 274 p lt 001 Mexican-American parents compared with

Anglo-Americans (a) less often allowed their child to bring friends home to

play pound(1257)= 797 p lt 001 (b) required their children to play closer

to home pound (1257)= 706 p ltC001 (c) worried more when their children were

not at home pound(1257)= 346 p lt 006 and (d) allowed the child to make fewer

small decisions such as what to wear and when to go to bed pound(1257)= 518

plt 002 Compared with Anglo-Americans Mexican-American parents expressed

more disapproval when their child argued with authority figures such as

teachers pound(1257)= 540 p ltpound 001 or interrupted adult conversations pound(1257) =

651 p lt 001

In summary results suggest that Mexican-Americans do display patterns

of childrearing and family attitudes significantly different from those of

Anglo-Americans and consistent with their Mexican cultural background After

9

-7- Family Attitudes

controlling for differences in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents

in contrast with their Anglo-American neighbors held more family-centered

attitudes reflecting a greater concern for maintaining close warm relationshy

ships within the family and appear to encourage similar family-centered

attitudes and behaviors in their children by requiring them to play close to

home with siblings and to respect the authority of their elders

By way of caution it should be noted that the present study required a

high level of cooperation from respondents and that the sample included only

intact families where both parents were of the same cultural background

Further the respondents were mostly women Since the sample is therefore

likely to have a disproportionate number of the more stable and verbally fluent

members of both cultural communities generalizations must be restricted

accordingly

Conclusions

Nonetheless our findings are of interest to psychologists studying Mexican-

Americans for several reasons First we have begun to identify cultural difshy

ferences in childreering practices which do not appear to be accounted for by

differences in education occupation or socioeconomic status Second alshy

though research by Kagan Madsen and their colleagues have documented the

effects of cultural background urbanization and socioeconomic differences on

the social motives of Mexican Mexican-American and Anglo-American children

researchers have just begun to define the variables which mediate between cultural

background and social motives Recent reviews of cross-cultural research by

Triandis Malpass and Davidson (1973) and Whiting (Note 1) have urged psyshy

chologists to begin to unravel packaged variables such as cultural backshy

ground and socioeconomic status in order to delineate more carefully the causal

links between such demographic variables on the one hand and attitudes and

behaviors on the other It is hoped that the present research along with the

10

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

-5- Family Attitudes

Interview

The interview was presented in three sections in the following order

(a) background information which consisted of 43 questions concerning the

number of children the familys religious affiliation the number of years

of formal education of each parent the occupation of each parent and the

languages spoken in the home the country of birth etc (b) attitudes toward

close family ties which consisted of 13 Likert-type items and (c) parent-child

relations including 85 questions concerning the rules the child is expected

to follow childs chores the parents ways of punishing and rewarding the

child and so on The questions were designed to be answered with reference

to a young child with at least one year of school experience therefore each

family in the sample had to have at least one child between the ages of six and

twelve years

Results and Discussion

Despite an attempt to institute a nonstatistical control for socioeconomic

status by selecting respondents from the same neighborhoods (ie areas with

houses of similar age and cost) Anglo-Americans were significantly better

educated than their Mexican-American counterparts (wives t^(260)= 749 plt001

husbands t(239)= 573 p^001) and had significantly higher average socio-

economic status (M259) = 372 plt001) a weighted combination of the husbands

education and occupational levels (Hollingshead 1959) To assess the effects

of cultural background on each of two sets of items one set selected to measure

attitudes toward close family relations and the other set selected to measure

parental encouragement of dependence multivariate analyses of variance were

performed using socioeconomic status as a covariate

-6- Family Attitudes

The analyses confirmed that Mexican-American parents felt close family

relations were more important than did Arglo-Americans multivariate pound(6252=

266 p lt 001) All measures of family-centeredness produced highly signishy

ficant univariates pound s for cultural background Compared with Anglo-Americans

Mexican-American parents agreed more strongly with statements indicating they

(a) enjoyed talking with their parents pound(1257)= 216 p laquopound 02 (b) their

relatives had warm and friendly feelings toward one another pound(1257)= 1026

p lti 001 (c) a childs best friend should be hisher brother or sister F_

(1257)= 663 p - 001 (d) the familys reputation in the neighborhood is

important pound(1257)= 219 p ltpound 02 and (e) loyalty to family members is very

important regardless of whether the relative is right or wrong pound(1257)=

116 p pound~ 03 In addition Mexican-American parents visited their relatives

more often than did the Anglo-Americans pound(1257)= 228 p pound 02

Mexican-American parents tended to encourage their childrens dependence

on the family unit and obedience to authority more than Anglo-American parents

multivariate pound(8250)= 274 p lt 001 Mexican-American parents compared with

Anglo-Americans (a) less often allowed their child to bring friends home to

play pound(1257)= 797 p lt 001 (b) required their children to play closer

to home pound (1257)= 706 p ltC001 (c) worried more when their children were

not at home pound(1257)= 346 p lt 006 and (d) allowed the child to make fewer

small decisions such as what to wear and when to go to bed pound(1257)= 518

plt 002 Compared with Anglo-Americans Mexican-American parents expressed

more disapproval when their child argued with authority figures such as

teachers pound(1257)= 540 p ltpound 001 or interrupted adult conversations pound(1257) =

651 p lt 001

In summary results suggest that Mexican-Americans do display patterns

of childrearing and family attitudes significantly different from those of

Anglo-Americans and consistent with their Mexican cultural background After

9

-7- Family Attitudes

controlling for differences in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents

in contrast with their Anglo-American neighbors held more family-centered

attitudes reflecting a greater concern for maintaining close warm relationshy

ships within the family and appear to encourage similar family-centered

attitudes and behaviors in their children by requiring them to play close to

home with siblings and to respect the authority of their elders

By way of caution it should be noted that the present study required a

high level of cooperation from respondents and that the sample included only

intact families where both parents were of the same cultural background

Further the respondents were mostly women Since the sample is therefore

likely to have a disproportionate number of the more stable and verbally fluent

members of both cultural communities generalizations must be restricted

accordingly

Conclusions

Nonetheless our findings are of interest to psychologists studying Mexican-

Americans for several reasons First we have begun to identify cultural difshy

ferences in childreering practices which do not appear to be accounted for by

differences in education occupation or socioeconomic status Second alshy

though research by Kagan Madsen and their colleagues have documented the

effects of cultural background urbanization and socioeconomic differences on

the social motives of Mexican Mexican-American and Anglo-American children

researchers have just begun to define the variables which mediate between cultural

background and social motives Recent reviews of cross-cultural research by

Triandis Malpass and Davidson (1973) and Whiting (Note 1) have urged psyshy

chologists to begin to unravel packaged variables such as cultural backshy

ground and socioeconomic status in order to delineate more carefully the causal

links between such demographic variables on the one hand and attitudes and

behaviors on the other It is hoped that the present research along with the

10

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

-6- Family Attitudes

The analyses confirmed that Mexican-American parents felt close family

relations were more important than did Arglo-Americans multivariate pound(6252=

266 p lt 001) All measures of family-centeredness produced highly signishy

ficant univariates pound s for cultural background Compared with Anglo-Americans

Mexican-American parents agreed more strongly with statements indicating they

(a) enjoyed talking with their parents pound(1257)= 216 p laquopound 02 (b) their

relatives had warm and friendly feelings toward one another pound(1257)= 1026

p lti 001 (c) a childs best friend should be hisher brother or sister F_

(1257)= 663 p - 001 (d) the familys reputation in the neighborhood is

important pound(1257)= 219 p ltpound 02 and (e) loyalty to family members is very

important regardless of whether the relative is right or wrong pound(1257)=

116 p pound~ 03 In addition Mexican-American parents visited their relatives

more often than did the Anglo-Americans pound(1257)= 228 p pound 02

Mexican-American parents tended to encourage their childrens dependence

on the family unit and obedience to authority more than Anglo-American parents

multivariate pound(8250)= 274 p lt 001 Mexican-American parents compared with

Anglo-Americans (a) less often allowed their child to bring friends home to

play pound(1257)= 797 p lt 001 (b) required their children to play closer

to home pound (1257)= 706 p ltC001 (c) worried more when their children were

not at home pound(1257)= 346 p lt 006 and (d) allowed the child to make fewer

small decisions such as what to wear and when to go to bed pound(1257)= 518

plt 002 Compared with Anglo-Americans Mexican-American parents expressed

more disapproval when their child argued with authority figures such as

teachers pound(1257)= 540 p ltpound 001 or interrupted adult conversations pound(1257) =

651 p lt 001

In summary results suggest that Mexican-Americans do display patterns

of childrearing and family attitudes significantly different from those of

Anglo-Americans and consistent with their Mexican cultural background After

9

-7- Family Attitudes

controlling for differences in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents

in contrast with their Anglo-American neighbors held more family-centered

attitudes reflecting a greater concern for maintaining close warm relationshy

ships within the family and appear to encourage similar family-centered

attitudes and behaviors in their children by requiring them to play close to

home with siblings and to respect the authority of their elders

By way of caution it should be noted that the present study required a

high level of cooperation from respondents and that the sample included only

intact families where both parents were of the same cultural background

Further the respondents were mostly women Since the sample is therefore

likely to have a disproportionate number of the more stable and verbally fluent

members of both cultural communities generalizations must be restricted

accordingly

Conclusions

Nonetheless our findings are of interest to psychologists studying Mexican-

Americans for several reasons First we have begun to identify cultural difshy

ferences in childreering practices which do not appear to be accounted for by

differences in education occupation or socioeconomic status Second alshy

though research by Kagan Madsen and their colleagues have documented the

effects of cultural background urbanization and socioeconomic differences on

the social motives of Mexican Mexican-American and Anglo-American children

researchers have just begun to define the variables which mediate between cultural

background and social motives Recent reviews of cross-cultural research by

Triandis Malpass and Davidson (1973) and Whiting (Note 1) have urged psyshy

chologists to begin to unravel packaged variables such as cultural backshy

ground and socioeconomic status in order to delineate more carefully the causal

links between such demographic variables on the one hand and attitudes and

behaviors on the other It is hoped that the present research along with the

10

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

-7- Family Attitudes

controlling for differences in socioeconomic status Mexican-American parents

in contrast with their Anglo-American neighbors held more family-centered

attitudes reflecting a greater concern for maintaining close warm relationshy

ships within the family and appear to encourage similar family-centered

attitudes and behaviors in their children by requiring them to play close to

home with siblings and to respect the authority of their elders

By way of caution it should be noted that the present study required a

high level of cooperation from respondents and that the sample included only

intact families where both parents were of the same cultural background

Further the respondents were mostly women Since the sample is therefore

likely to have a disproportionate number of the more stable and verbally fluent

members of both cultural communities generalizations must be restricted

accordingly

Conclusions

Nonetheless our findings are of interest to psychologists studying Mexican-

Americans for several reasons First we have begun to identify cultural difshy

ferences in childreering practices which do not appear to be accounted for by

differences in education occupation or socioeconomic status Second alshy

though research by Kagan Madsen and their colleagues have documented the

effects of cultural background urbanization and socioeconomic differences on

the social motives of Mexican Mexican-American and Anglo-American children

researchers have just begun to define the variables which mediate between cultural

background and social motives Recent reviews of cross-cultural research by

Triandis Malpass and Davidson (1973) and Whiting (Note 1) have urged psyshy

chologists to begin to unravel packaged variables such as cultural backshy

ground and socioeconomic status in order to delineate more carefully the causal

links between such demographic variables on the one hand and attitudes and

behaviors on the other It is hoped that the present research along with the

10

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

-8- Family Attitudes

probing analyses of Kagan (Note 2) and Hoppe (Note 3) also reported at this

conference will stimulate greater interest in unpacking Mexican cultural

background

Finally although some critics may suggest that the findings reported

create a negative image of the Mexican-American family it is our opinion that

the ability of Mexican-Americans to maintain a warm and supportive family life

in the hard-driving achievement oriented American culture should be cause

for respect and reflection A renewal of the American middle-class family

may well profit from analysis of the Mexican-American family

11

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

-9- Family Attitudes

REFERENCE NOTES

1 Whiting B The problem of the packaged variable A paper presented

at the Biennial International Conference on Behavioral Development Ann

Arbor Michigan August 1973

2 Kagan S Resolution of simple conflicts among Anglo-American Mexican-

American and Mexican children of three ages A paper presented at the

Annual Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles

April 1976

3 Hoppe C M Mother-child conflict resolution and field dependence among

Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans A paper presented at the Annual

Meeting of the Western Psychological Association Los Angeles April 1976

12

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13

-10-

REFERENCES Family Attitudes

Carlos M L amp Sellers L Family kinship structure and modernization in

Latin America Latin American Research Review 19727J2) 95-124

Grebler L Moore J W amp Guzman R The Mexican-American people The

nations second largest minority New York The Free Press 1970

Hollingshead A B Two factor index of social position New Haven Connecticut

Author 19pound7

Kagan S amp~Carlson H Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican

and United States children Developmental Psychology 1975 11 71-78

Kagan S amp Zahn L Field dependence and the school achievement gap between

Anglo-American and Mexican-American children Journal of Educational

Psychology 1975 67 643-650

Madsen M C amp Kagan S Mother-directed achievement of children in two

cultures Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1973 4_ 221-228

McGinn N F Harburg E S Ginsberg G P Dependency relations with

parents and affiliative responses in Michigan and Guadalajara Sociometry

1965 28 305-321

McGinn N F Marriage and family in middle-class Mexico Journal of Marriage

and the Fanily 1966 28^305-313

Penalosa F Mexican family roles Journal of Marriage and the Family 1968

30 680-689

Rosen B C Socialization and achievement motivation in Brazil American

Sociological Review 1962 27 612-624

Triandis H C Malpass R S amp Davidson A R Psychology and culture

Annual Review of Psychology 1973 24 355-378

Uhlenberg P Demographic correlates of group achievement Contrasting patterns

of Mexican-Americans and Japanese-Americans Demography 1972 9_ 119-128

13